smithsonian_list_terms

MCP tool from Smithsonian MCP Server by cyanheads

Enumerate the valid term vocabulary for an indexed filter field (unitcode, culture, place, date, onlinemediatype, topic). Call before filtering to avoid empty results from invalid values; pass contains to resolve a guessed value to its exact term(s). unitcode terms come back with their museum names.

How to use it

smithsonian_list_terms is exposed by the Smithsonian MCP Server MCP server. Add the server to your MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf and others), and the smithsonian_list_terms tool becomes available to the model automatically. See the full listing for setup details and every tool this server provides.

Install Smithsonian MCP Server

$docker run --rm -e SMITHSONIAN_API_KEY=your-api-key -p 3010:3010 smithsonian-mcp-server

FULL SMITHSONIAN MCP SERVER LISTING

Other tools in Smithsonian MCP Server (9)

object_type

is not enumerable upstream — discover object-type values from the objecttype field in smithsoniansearchobjects results

similarity_signals

on each result show every metadata term that connected it to the anchor — an object surfaced by more than one signal carries all of them

smithsonian_browse_category

Browse objects within one exact category (museum, culture, period, medium, topic) with total count, a page of objects, and museum breakdown. Requires an exact indexed category term.

smithsonian_find_related

Discover cross-collection objects related to an anchor, matched on shared culture, named-party, topic, and period signals.

smithsonian_get_media

Return all CC0-licensed images for an object at multiple resolutions (thumbnail, screen, high-res JPEG/TIFF). Only CC0 images returned, never an empty list — a distinct error reason names why, whether the object has nothing digitized, only non-image media, or only restricted images.

smithsonian_get_object

Fetch a normalized catalog metadata projection for an object by ID: title, dates, materials, dimensions, exhibition history, credit line, and identifiers.

smithsonian_search_objects

Search across 14.5M objects by text query with optional filters (museum, type, date term, culture, place, topic, name, online-only, CC0). Returns curated summaries with total count.

topic

and name are hard indexed constraints, not free text — topic: "Quilts" matches 1,134 objects where the bare word matches 2,677, and name: "Warhol, Andy" matches 421 against 715

value

must be an exact indexed category term — resolve museum, culture, period, and topic vocabulary with smithsonianlistterms first; objecttype is not enumerable there, so harvest it from smithsoniansearchobjects results